


Out of Place - 4+1

by kihyxns



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 4 + 1 things, Fluff and Angst, Good Alpha Derek Hale, Hurt Isaac, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Isaac Lahey's Past Abuse, Isaac-centric, M/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 00:46:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19284634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kihyxns/pseuds/kihyxns
Summary: four times they don't talk about it, one time they do





	Out of Place - 4+1

**Author's Note:**

> wowowow, i finished watching teen wolf about this time last year and i recently rewatched S2 and S3A, fell back in love with Isaac and started writing a fic. this took me two weeks so it might not be as good as usual, but it does the job and i enjoyed writing it as well. this is my first teen wolf fic so sorry if the characters are a little ooc. please please please leave comments or kudos underneath it really makes me happy and i love to see them !!! thank you for reading, hope you enjoy!! <3
> 
> trigger warnings:  
> past references to abuse  
> panic attack  
> general anxiety

It’s choking, suffocating, that lingering feeling of hands wrapping around his throat, rough movements forcibly pushing him down into the freezer. No matter what he does to try and rid himself of the feelings, it remains a constant in his life. Even after the bite, after the power flows through his veins, the premonition of pure fear never disappears. 

He could hide the fear deep enough within him to hide it from his alpha, that’s until they moved to the loft together. With both Erica and Boyd gone, the rigorous emotional filter Isaac was used to, was breaking apart, leaving his inner emotions laid bare out before him. It hits him more frequently now, wearing his barriers down until he can’t stop himself from revealing the extent of his broken soul. 

— 1. 

Derek admits he’s not been the best leadership figure to his betas. Now he’s only got one left — Peter is out of his control, he comes and goes when he wants — and he’s vowed to himself to make sure that Isaac doesn’t end up leaving him as well. Even with his renewed dedication to being an alpha, it’s not easy, especially when it’s Isaac that he’s concerned with. 

Bringing Isaac back from the hospital is when he notices. His eyes sunken in more than usual, skin, paler and the exhaustion from being carried to the car is easily seen all over his face. Derek carefully settles his beta into the passenger seat, tucking the blanket that he’s still holding around the shivering teenager. On the surface, his injuries are healed, but the way he’s curling subtly around his injured side gives away more than he wants to reveal. 

Derek ramps the heat up, slowly roasting himself as he does so, but knowing that Isaac will benefit from it. It’s barely seconds after the beta is relaxed in his seat before his eyes slip shut, subconsciously feeling secure in Derek’s care. He lets himself go, feeling the anaesthetic still persisting in his system. Derek slides his hand over Isaac’s knee, keeping one hand on the wheel as he drives, holding the teenager steady just in case. 

It doesn’t take long for the pair to make it back to the loft, with that Derek can breathe a short sigh of relief at the fact. He parks up, quickly getting out of the car, in order to get Isaac out as well. As he gently picks Isaac up, he realises how cold the younger is, becoming slightly more concerned as the seconds' pass. Wolves run hot, and Isaac is too cold to hit that standard. Even though Isaac is mostly skin and bone, Derek is thankful for his super-strength because Isaac is also mostly long limbs. 

Mildly out of breath, but still, up the stairs, Derek knocks sharply on the door of the loft, waiting for Peter to open it. Isaac is starting to stir from his light slumber, his head moving into the juncture of Derek’s neck and shoulders. The door swings open before them, a slightly surprised Peter standing to the side. 

“Well that’s unexpected,” Peter voices. Derek strides right past him, wanting to get Isaac straight into bed before he fully wakes up and insists he’s fine. 

Peter follows what’s left of the pack, stopping against the doorframe as he watches Derek tend to his still injured beta. He can sense the heightening of Derek’s urgency, witnessing the alpha fumble when prying open the drawers, hastily deciding on what clothes to give Isaac. He decides on the softest item of clothing he can find, turning back to face Isaac, knowing that it might be a challenge to get the teenager into these clothes. 

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Peter calls from the doorway, his back already facing Derek as he walks away. Derek scoffs, he knows how to look after his beta. 

Isaac is pliable from the anaesthetic, which makes it easy to manhandle him out of the uncomfortable hospital gown and into the softer jumper. Considering the fact that the wolf is still unusually cold, Derek sheds his top and jeans, chucking on a pair of cotton shorts before sliding into bed with Isaac. Normally, Isaac would shy away from any full-on contact like this, but on the rare occasion that he’s like this, Derek takes the opportunity to comfort him. 

Under the blanket of the night, Derek hugs Isaac tightly to his chest, just to the extent that he can feel Isaac’s heartbeat reverberating against his own skin. It is only when he can feel the beta fully relax, his breath and heartbeat slowing to a normal pace, does Derek allow himself to fall under as well. Something, Derek can’t place what it is, but just something is out of place. 

— 2. 

Isaac has a large habit of falling asleep wherever is moderately comfortable. He guesses the reasoning behind it is that the second he could fall asleep at home he’d take it. Whether that’d be in his bed, on the sofa, in the armchair, wherever, as long as he can prevent his dad kicking the shit out of him. This instinct of his has not depleted, even though he is totally safe at the loft with Derek - maybe not with Peter around, but he takes it day by day. 

He has an affinity towards the sofa, his dad would wrench him out of bed to go to school, or to punish him in whatever way he deemed fit. But, for some probably misguided reason, Isaac was never pulled from the sofa. Plus, the constant, ingrained, all-consuming, nightmares have persisted, making getting to sleep in his actual bedroom harder than it should have to be. So he and the sofa become good acquaintances over the couple weeks he’s lived with Derek. 

Isaac’s penchant for ‘sofa snoozing’, as Peter has dubbed it, has not been lost on Derek. Wolves don’t need as much sleep as humans to get by, and Isaac seems to be napping heavily on the majority of days, especially in term times. It concerns Derek, not enough to bring it up with Isaac himself, but definitely enough to keep more of an awareness on his movements in the loft. 

Isaac is exhausted. The school day has run him through, with a chemistry and history test, as well as morning and evening lacrosse practice. Considering that he slept about three hours the previous night, and has not had a great record of sleeping through the night for the past couple years, it’s no surprise that he’s nearly falling asleep standing when he makes it to the loft. 

Once he takes a seat on the sofa, Isaac knows it’s a mistake. The cushions are so soft and comfortable, the homework that’s sitting in his bag is so undesirable that he doesn’t even take it out. Instead, he sits upright against the sofa-back, feeling calmed by the background noise that’s around him. Derek isn’t home yet, neither is Peter, so they won’t be annoyed that he’s taking up space, or the TV. So, he lets himself drift off, falling into a (hopefully) dreamless sleep. 

Isaac’s senses are so dulled by the lack of sleep that he doesn’t even notice Derek slipping into the loft. The alpha walks silently around the sofa, feeling that something isn’t exactly right with the situation as a whole. He doesn’t want to wake his beta though, the teenager needs sleep considering the amount of stress piled up on his shoulders. He just moves through the loft, shedding his jeans and replacing them for something more comfortable. He returns back to the sofa with a blanket, and a mission to get Isaac into a better sleeping position.

Even though, at times, Isaac can want to avoid ‘excessive’ cuddles (or what Derek calls it, normal pack bonding), when he’s like this, passed out nearly completely on the sofa, he finds it a lot harder to resist the pull of comfort from his alpha. He still remains wary about the male authority figures in his life, but he trusts Derek enough by now to just allow him to do what he thinks best. Derek positions himself against the sofa arm, slowly bringing Isaac down onto his chest. His head falls easily onto Derek’s shoulder, the alpha wrapping an arm around him. He subconsciously leans further into Derek’s hold, tightening the grip Derek has on his young beta. Derek drapes the blanket over the teenager, relishing in content his wolf is receiving. 

Derek’s mind starts to wander briefly as he sits with Isaac. He starts to question his abilities as an alpha, he should know if something is wrong with his beta, and he can feel it, under his skin, but he has no idea what the actual issue is. He can guess that Isaac isn’t getting enough sleep, but that’s an easy deduction, what’s going on inside his mind is a lot harder to figure out. Lest the worry radiating off of Derek wakes Isaac up, he just gives in to the tug of sleep, pushing aside his mental anguish to be the best pillow possible for Isaac. 

— 3. 

Isaac doesn't think that he’ll not get stressed when exam season is on the horizon. The ingrained fear that his father left him with is still there, always taunting him, always shouting at him within his own mind. This fight-or-flight response when it comes to testing is the probable cause of how his emotions are ‘all over the place’. There’s that underlying jab of self-doubt, and all-out panic at the idea of his report card, the abuse that follows after the words on the sheet get read out. Those memories will stay with him forever, regardless of that fact that his father is dead, and Derek should be someone he can trust with his life. That doesn’t stop his mind from waging an assault on his body.

Isaac does the only thing that will stop him from stressing out as much as possible, study. Physically as much as he can fit into one day, and then some. He stops sleeping, staying up later and waking up earlier just to cram some extra minutes in. He cannot fail, he must not fail. His werewolf life had overtaken him for too long and now he needs to get his shit back together again, not for himself, but to please his abusive and dead father whose shadow still looms over him, all-consuming and ever-present. So he whittles himself down, unwillingly, to his skin and bones. 

Self-admitted, Derek didn’t pay much attention to Isaac’s school life, but since the pack moved into the loft it’s become much more prevalent in his life. The school routine dictates what schedule the two of them are on, the extra-circulars that Isaac needs a lift from, assignment deadlines, parent-teacher evenings, all the high school stuff that parents would typically work up to, but that Derek has been thrown head-first into the deep end. He takes it in his stride though, understanding that he’s not been a great alpha, losing Erica and Boyd really nailed that point home. Now, after that, he needs to start doing better by Isaac, that’s his goal. And that’s what he’ll do. 

Even with Derek’s new commitment to get involved more regularly in Isaac’s life, it doesn’t mean that the younger is any more willing to give into it. Sure, he might let Derek look over a math problem he can’t solve or an English assignment that he’s struggling with. But, he doesn’t allow him to see the severe effects of studying, and how that’s weighing down on him. The extra-credit he’s constantly taking on to boost his GPA, plus lacrosse, plus dealing with the supernatural on a weekly basis. Adjusting to life, firstly as an orphan, and secondly without Erica and Boyd. He doesn’t allow Derek in on any of that stuff, and it’s starting to break him, slowly but surely. 

However, Derek isn’t an idiot, he can sense that tipping point, probably a long time after he was meant to, but he can feel is growing in the conversations they share, in the time they spend together. Something is wrong. 

Isaac trudges home after his last exam of the semester, chemistry. He doesn’t reply with Derek’s text of ‘do you want a lift?’, like usual, instead deciding to walk the way home, in the cold, and maybe rain (the weather hasn’t made up its mind yet). Part of him wants to run off into the woods for a week, try and gather himself back together again, but he knows that if he was to do that, Derek would come looking for him the second it was clear that he’d gone — plus he’d be found quickly, so what’s the point. He stands in front of the door, wondering if he should let himself in, or if he should find someplace else to wallow in anxiety and anguish in order to avoid annoying Derek with his fragile emotional state. In the end, he decides to just go in, walk straight past the alpha and into his room. He’ll get the message. 

Derek can feel the panic rolling off of Isaac before he even steps inside the building, let alone when he’s lingering outside the door. He moves from his room, going down into the kitchen so that he can approach Isaac after he’s walked in, knowing that whatever he’s feeling has to be addressed. A sensible alpha will raise the issue, plus he can’t imagine sitting down here as Isaac broods in his room, it would be too painful. 

Isaac slides open the door, immediately freezing as he sees Derek almost waiting for his entrance. His throat closes up, the ability to breathe instantly becoming tightened as he witnesses his alpha — the one male authority figure that he cares about in his life — waiting for him, figuring that he knows that Isaac just screwed up his chemistry test, and all the other tests he’s taken this semester. His bag drops to the floor, falling sharply off of his shoulder as he attempts to stagger past Derek, his limbs not communicating the way they should be. His brain is screaming at him to cooperate with his lungs, knowing that if he doesn’t get this surprise panic attack under control he’ll never be able to defend himself from the _obviously_ furious alpha that’s standing in front of him. This leads him to start taking short, shallow, fast-paced breaths, worsening the situation entirely. 

Derek snaps out of his inaction as he hears Isaac take a wheezing breath, slowly moving forward towards the beta, subconsciously knowing that the way he’s acting is the result of years of abuse. His hands are held up, showing off his palms to a startled and panicky Isaac. He stops moving just within reaching-distance of Isaac, not wanting to exacerbate his panic. 

“Can I touch you?” He asks gently, his voice clear and smooth, not one hint of his alpha dominance leaking through. 

Isaac jerks his head in a nod, stumbling out with a ‘yes’ to confirm. Derek calmly places a warm hand on Isaac’s bicep, attempting to not overwhelm him with the full-on hug as he wishes to right now. He lets Isaac initiate the rest of the contact, with the younger walking straight into Derek’s open arms. Derek slings one arm around Isaac’s back, the other hand grasping the back of his head, softly holding Isaac’s head against Derek’s throat. He can feel the steady stream of tears flowing from Isaac’s eyes, still slightly confused about the situation as a whole, but guessing it is vaguely related to exams. 

“Shhh, it’ll all be okay,” Derek murmurs, attempting to keep his breathing steady for Isaac’s own sake. 

He just stands there, holding Isaac tightly in his arms until the crying subsides, the breathing even and the panic withdrew. His heartbeat is still a little too elevated for Derek’s own comfort, but he still pulls away, looking straight into Isaac’s watery eyes. The younger seems reluctant to hold eye contact, so instead of standing in a stalemate, Derek pulls him along to his room, pushing them both down into the soft sheets of his bed. Derek guides, but Isaac latches onto the comfort that close contact like this can provide, not minding that his face is smushed up against Derek’s collarbones. 

“School stress?” Derek prompts lightly, knowing he’ll only get an answer out of Isaac if he wants to give one. 

“You could say that,” Isaac replies, his fingers already fidgeting by drawing circles on Derek’s left ribcage. This is not the conversation he wanted to have. 

“I’m not your father Isaac, as long as you’re happy, I’m happy,” 

“Can we just not talk about this?” Isaac cuts Derek off, feeling that his breakdown was enough of an intrusion into his hidden life. 

“If you don’t want to then we won’t,” Derek settles, knowing that conversations on this topic can be difficult, he doesn’t want to push it when he’s already at his limit, so he just drops it, reminding himself to pick it up later. 

Isaac is quickly coaxed into sleep by Derek, the comforting feeling of being protected by his alpha is enough to allow him to drop off relatively easily, secure in the knowledge that Derek’s looking out for him. 

— 4. 

After leaving high school, Derek has missed lacrosse, even just watching a match is good every once in a while. Now Isaac is on the HS team, along with Scott and Stiles, he actually has a reason to start watching the matches again. He attempts to make it to every single game he can, and so far he’s been totally successful. What Isaac’s needed for a long time now is someone to be supportive of his extra-circulars, considering that Mr Lahey was purely interested in swimming — a sport Isaac wasn’t great at — he never went to any of his games. Derek has tried to change that, driving him to morning and weekend practice, attending all the games, cheering him on in the stands. Hopefully, Isaac is feeling a lot more loved than he ever did with that monster. 

The championships start in a week, which means coach has them running suicide runs every day, along with morning, lunch and evening practice. As Friday is rolling around, (the match is Sunday) Isaac is dead on his feet. He’s getting more sleep than usual, but that’s mainly because he simply passes out for a couple of hours before the nightmare kicks in and sleep is no more. His eyes have terrible bags under them, and his lacrosse bag feels way too heavy to handle anymore. Derek seems to subconsciously notice this, taking Isaac’s bag to the locker room for him when he drops him and Scott off at the field in the morning. The younger is being run into the ground by this set of intense matches, he just hopes he can keep up. 

Even after taking Saturday as a rest day, Isaac doesn’t feel completely prepared for the ‘most important match of his high school career’, as coach puts it. Before he even emerges out of his bedroom, he can hear the clattering of plates downstairs. Luckily for him, Derek is actually quite a good cook, so he doesn’t fear eating breakfast made by his alpha (Peter, however, a terrible chef). He trudges downstairs, his oversized sweatshirt exposing his collarbones as he makes it down to the kitchen. Derek already has a buffet-sized breakfast laid out, with everything possible to eat ready, waiting for the pair to devour. 

“Morning,” Isaac calls, a continuing habit of letting Derek know of his presence still lingers, even though the werewolf hearing probably altered him when he first got out of bed.

“Excited for the match?” Derek asks back, turning from his place at the stove, pouring himself a cup of coffee. 

“Trained hard enough for it, it’ll be worth it,”

“That’s why I have been preparing for an hour, my young pup is still growing,”

Isaac scowls at the ‘pup’ remark, in which Derek just ruffles his hair as he walks past, ignoring the disdain for his beta, he’ll always be a pup in Derek’s mind. Isaac doesn’t realise how hungry he is until he starts to eat, quickly finishing his plate and starting on a new one. It still doesn’t magically repair his condition back to normal, he’s still lethargic, still weak from over-practice. It doesn’t mean he’s not going to play through, letting the team, coach, and Derek down? He doesn’t want to be the biggest Beacon Hills disappointment ever. 

Before he really registers it, he’s out on the field, Scott and Stiles by his side as the run warm-up laps for the last time before the match. Soon, coach, has them doing practice shot after practice shot, with the majority of the team nailing them every time. They break for lunch, but Isaac just stays sipping on an energy drink, his appetite from his morning lost in the crushing exhaustion, and anxiety surrounding the match. The day continues. 

Coach suits up, ready for his independence day speech that he always gives, even though it has no relevance to the match, it does get everyone riled up, ready to crush the opposition. I Isaac feels slightly unsteady on his feet, but the atmosphere and energy that the team is exuding push him over the ledge. He can see Derek, Melissa and the Sheriff sat in a line in the stands, cheering the trio on. At that moment, Isaac is willing to push himself to the absolute extreme, just to make sure he can participate in the match just so he can help win the championship. He guesses that he’ll be so exhausted after the match that he won’t even have the ability to experience the same, horrifying nightmare as usual. A perfect solution, basically a win-win. 

The whistle is blown, it’s an uneventful start to the match. It’s in the third quarter that Isaac lands himself in hot water. One would expect that after the halftime players would feel a little more refreshed and ready to play, that extra ten minutes of waiting around just served to remind Isaac of the weight of exhaustion on his body right now. Usually, with his werewolf speed and strength, opposing tackles would barely be felt, let alone knock him fully down. This match is not a usual match. The guy who body slams into him isn’t even that built, he’s just fast and packs some muscle. Isaac goes down, _**hard**_ , his leg snapping at the awkward angle. It’s agony. 

Even though Derek is happily chatting to both Melissa and the Sheriff, not placing his full attention on the game, he still hears the event in vivid detail. Isaac’s bone splits at the strain of the tackle, immediately falling to the floor, his head rebounding off the field. Instantly, along with the coach and Melissa, he’s right next to Isaac, who is already struggling to get up. He helps the boy upright, knowing that his healing will already be kicking in, not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to the fracture that will soon disappear. 

“You okay?” Derek whispers as he wraps his arms around Isaac’s back, pulling him slowly upright. 

“It’s not healing quick enough,” Isaac mumbles, the pain on his face extremely evident. 

Derek’s mind grinds to a halt. He pulls away from Isaac’s torso, scanning the boy’s features for a second before the team of people surrounding the pair start intervening. Isaac looks shattered, his hands already shaking with the strength it’s taking not to scream from the pain. Derek takes a guess and chalks it up to him not sleeping enough, the healing process will be slower, most likely. That means he has to get both of them away from human eyes and probably to Deaton as soon as possible. He hauls Isaac up on his good foot, tightening the hold on his shoulders to support his weight. 

“Woah, Isaac, you might wanna sit back down,” Coach exclaims, surprised to see him on his feet already. 

“I’m fine coach, promise,” Isaac replies through gritted teeth. 

“I’ll take him off the field, can’t stop the match coach,” Derek supplies, already starting to walk Isaac off the centre of the pitch. That seems to reboot coach’s brain, with him starting to bark orders at the team, getting them back into position. 

Scott and Stiles give Isaac a meaningful glance as Derek hobbles him off the pitch, getting back to the match on an order. Melissa follows the pair closely behind, waiting for the opportunity to voice her medical opinion. Derek makes it back to the edge of the stands, still holding onto Isaac in a death-grip, sensing how fragile the younger is currently. 

“His leg is broken, but it’s healing, I can see it starting to slot back into place,” Melissa says, knelt down by Isaac’s shattered leg. 

“I’m going to Deaton,” Derek replies, knowing that without Melissa there to cover them at the hospital, there’s no point in going. 

The second the pair are out of sight of the match, Derek lift’s Isaac straight into his arms, picking up the pace as he spots the Camaro in the distance. He settles Isaac in the front seat, trying to make him as comfortable as possible. It’s not far from the school to Deaton, but it’s still a fast and bumpy ride. Derek holds onto Isaac’s wrist, draining any pain he might feel from the erratic journey as he drives. With Isaac semi-conscious in his arms, Derek walks through the veterinarian's door, immediately facing Deaton, who just walks them through. At first, the emissary looks confused, but he soon seems to have a grasp on the situation. Derek lies Isaac down on the metal table, continuing to stand close to the younger. 

“What happened?” Deaton asks, gathering a brace from one of his drawers. 

“He broke his leg in a lacrosse match, but it’s not healing properly,”

“Yeah, I can see,”

Derek draws up a chair, sitting closely to Isaac, who’s still mostly unconscious, the pain from his leg flowing around his system. He has a feeling that Deaton is going to make things worse before they get better. 

“I’m going to force Isaac’s bones back into place otherwise they might heal incorrectly, it will definitely hurt, so you’ll need to hold him down,”

Derek rises from his seat, holding both of Isaac’s shoulders securely before Deaton places his hands on the slowly healing leg. Unfortunately, with Derek’s enhanced hearing, he can hear every tiny crack as the bones are pushed back into the correct position. Isaac pulls against Derek’s hold, a sharp shout voiced, his head lolling to the side from the pain of it all. After Deaton has secured the temporary brace, Derek starts to draw the pain from Isaac, allowing the beta to fall into a pain-induced daze. 

Within the hour Derek has his youngest charge settled into bed, thoroughly knocked out. He sits on his bed, carefully watching over the boy, being able to sense when the pain strikes again. Peter, intrigued by the situation at hand, leans against the doorframe, a question poised on the tip of his tongue. 

“Why did it happen?” Peter asks, knowing he’ll get a certain response. 

“He hasn’t been sleeping,” Derek sighs, subconsciously understanding that it’s been happening for a while, but not wanting to face up to it. 

“Why haven’t you done something about it, alpha?” Peter baits, knowing that the simple word ‘alpha’ will goad Derek into a response.

“We don’t talk about it,” Derek replies his fist curling into shape. Anger punctures his system. 

_“Maybe you should start,”_

— 5. 

After his short conversation with Peter, Derek has been thinking. Anyone who knows Derek understands that he’s not much of a ‘feelings guy’, he doesn’t enjoy talking about his more, softer emotions. Point blank. Even though he knows Isaac’s become progressively worse as time has passed, he can’t bring himself to face a conversation about it. So the two of them drift in the corners of the loft, acknowledging each other when necessary. The routine becomes ingrained in their systems, he doesn’t want to break it and nothing meaningful to come from it. But seeing the slow deterioration of Isaac’s mental state forces him into action, he just has to find the right time. 

As normal, Derek intends to sleep through the night. However, at some point deep into the night, he’s woken. At first, he’s confused. Nothing obvious has woken him, not a large crash, or a break-in, so he sits up, allowing his blanket to pool around his waist, puzzled. Then, as his hearing focuses, he can hear it, the slight uptick of Isaac’s heartbeat. It hits him then, the overwhelming feeling of terror, distress, anxiety, all hitting him at once. It rolls around the room, suffocating Derek with the strength of it. Within the second he is standing, warm bed abandoned, his body automatically moving towards his beta. 

He spots a shadowy figure, waiting, near the door to Isaac’s room. It’s Peter, also feeling the need to be close to the beta that he’s started to dote on. Ignoring his presence, Derek slowly opens the door to reveal Isaac, somehow curling his tall body into the fetal position, breathing heavily. His duvet has been pushed and pulled around the bedding, his pillows askew, all signs point to a nightmare. Derek hesitatingly stands at the foot of the bed, reaching out to near Isaac’s ankle, not wanting to startle the younger. 

“Isaac,” Derek calls, not letting his inner authority seep into his voice until absolutely necessary. 

Isaac looks up, his heart beating even faster at the sight of Derek. He’s going to be mad that he’s been woken up with such a pathetic reason, his nightmare is going to come true, back into the freezer. These thoughts swirl around alarmingly, along with the scenes from his ever-recurring nightmare, causing Isaac to jump-start a panic cycle. Derek, with all his senses on acute alert, can recognise this before it truly starts, making the rash decision to hold Isaac’s ankle gently, hoping that he snaps out of it. 

“Isaac, it’s me, Derek, I just need you to take a couple deep breaths yeah? Just do that for me,” Derek attempts to try and focus Isaac on the sound of his voice, as he moves around the foot of the bed to the side. 

This starts to work, with Isaac grasping for Derek’s hand, slowly moving out from his fetal position. It has limited success. When Derek gets a moderate ‘all clear’ for touch, he sits on the bed, facing inwards, towards a currently shaking Isaac. He, in turn, buries himself in Derek’s side, his arm clutching onto Derek’s back, wanting the stability that comes with contact. Derek loops his arm around Isaac, softly rubbing up and down the plane of his back, soothing the teenager from his nightmare. It comforts Derek to be in his position, holding his still frightened beta in his arms, knowing that no harm can come to him with his presence. 

He gives Isaac a couple of minutes to settle, his other hand reaching up to card through the curly locks of hair. Instead of ‘we don’t have to talk about it,’ this time around it’s, 

“We need to talk about this,” Derek states, his tone straight-forward, yet soft at the edges. 

“Do we have to?” Isaac murmurs, still wanting to live in ignorance at the issue affecting the majority of his life. 

“Yes, it’s getting worse, and I want to help,” Derek confirms, the full extent of his protective nature falling over Isaac. 

“It’s just these nightmares, they keep happening, they stop me from sleeping,” Isaac looks down, making sure he doesn’t catch his eye to Derek’s, feeling almost ashamed. 

“How long for?” 

“Since we moved in they’ve got so much worse, but I’ve had them since my mum died,” 

It connects in Derek’s mind, the pieces of the puzzle slot in together. Isaac’s abusive father must be the centre of his nightmares, and even though he’s long dead now, it must be the source of his suffering even still. The realisation makes Derek tighten his grasp just a little stronger, immediately wanting a solution to the situation. 

“You’re safe here, no ones ever going to hurt you like he did,” 

“I know, but it doesn’t mean they stop,” 

“I’m a constant reminder that he’ll never hurt you again, I’ll always be here,” 

Isaac gives an uncommunicable response, shifting his legs around instead. Derek just continues to hold him, leaning slowly back against the bed-frame, settling the pair in. It takes a while for Isaac to drop off, his heartbeat equalising to Derek’s calm one when he does. When he’s sure he can sense Isaac’s unconsciousness state, he relaxes in his seat, never falling asleep himself, making sure that Isaac stays in his dream-scape. 

Throughout the next few weeks, Derek ends up at the end of Isaac’s bed, or Isaac finds his way towards Derek’s bedroom. It becomes a sort of routine, with Derek calming down his beta each and every time with success. In the end, Isaac stops sleeping in his own bed, basically moving into Derek’s room, knowing that it’s one of the only ways he can get the nightmares to stop, for now anyway. 

—

Time flows smoothly from then on, months pass and the nightmares cease. Isaac finally gets the sleep he desperately needs, and Derek feels calm in the knowledge in the care he’s giving to his beta. All is good.

**Author's Note:**

> enjoyed?? please leave kudos and a comment down below, please!!!! it would make my day !!!!!! thank you for reading <3
> 
> \- L


End file.
